Plenty of teams watching tonight’s Ravens/Redskins pre-season thriller in Landover tore up their old playbook when scheming for the Ravens and added one new page that should suffice in 2010:

Game plan against the Ravens: Throw the ball. Often.

The Ravens were 23-3 winners over the Redskins on Saturday night, but it’s what they COULDN’T do, not what they DID do, that made the most impact.

What they couldn’t do: Stop the throw across the middle. Be it short, intermediate or long, the Redskins had a field day throwing the ball in the middle of the field.

Washington QB Donovan McNabb was good at times and bad at others, but there’s one thing for certain: The boys in purple better upgrade in the secondary and get better linebacker play against the pass between now and September 13 or they’ll need to put up 30 points a game on offense to win most Sundays.

The good from Saturday night? Marc Bulger was terrific. The only problem with that? He’s the back-up quarterback. But Bulger was good enough to fill the phone lines this coming week. You can expect talk radio to explode with “Should we think about starting Bulger?” calls sometime around 6:07 am on Monday.

Other highlights –

Terrell Suggs looked motivated in the first half and showed signs that he might be the Suggs of 2008 in 2010. He was ultra-quick off the edge and made life miserable for rookie Trent Williams throughout the first two quarters.

Cary Williams had a nice interception in the first half and continues to give the Ravens hope that he can help their ailing secondary once he returns from a 2-game suspension in week #3 when the Ravens host Cleveland.

Fabian Washington made his return after last November’s knee injury and looked fine, stepping in front of one McNabb throw near the goal-line and otherwise handling his business without issue.

Donte’ Stallworth had a good night catching the ball – particuarly linking up with Bulger – but a lost fumble marred his otherwise solid game.